Moderators note: This is pretty spammy material, but it may be of interest to some members here. In the future, posts like this will be deleted - it's not really news, it's a press release.

A new Connected TV research facility will open at Media City UK’s The Landing. It is dedicated to understanding how consumers engage and interact with today’s connected devices. With the installation of PTZ cameras and a Metus INGEST multi-channel, Multi-codec recording solution, the centre is now ready for Action.

Smart televisions, the PVR, multimedia games consoles and WiFi tablets are all threatening the dominance of traditional linear forms of entertainment, such as satellite and terrestrial TV. The surge in IP delivery and interactive devices has been so fast that content creators and applications developers are in a constant state of flux, researching and testing new products as consumers adapt to each new technology.

Jon Corner CEO of The Landing at Media City has developed a facility that will help manufacturers and content developers truly understand their target audience. Designed and built by DesignAV, the facility has four dedicated labs where test subjects can be put at ease in a familiar domestic environment with sofas, rugs and coffee tables. They are invited to engage with the technology under analysis while researchers in adjacent rooms follow the activity through polarized viewing glass.

Corner comments that:

“Research and analysis can take place in real-time and to accommodate this we’ve connected the labs to other spaces in The Landing such as our conference rooms and screening theatre. The Metus set up gives us the option to output HD-SDI to these larger audience spaces. On the other hand much analysis takes place after the session has been completed and again the flexibility of Metus gives us a full capture and browse IP solution with time-stamped clips available in whatever format the client requires.

It’s a multi-camera environment and each camera feed is recorded as a separate file. We also have a parents lounge within the facility which also plays out activity taking place in discrete labs.

“We need media to be immediately available as files, often in dual format. Traditional recorders can capture a single stream in a single codec so this really was a non-starter. We worked with Design AV to find a better solution and finally settled on Metus INGEST as our preferred route.”

Metus INGEST, supplied by Holdan, is a software application that can record multiple channels of video and audio with the option of either dual-codec capture or automated file transcoding.

Adam Levitt of Holdan adds:

“With Metus INGEST, The Landing has access to the files during and immediately after the shoot. This means that clients and researchers have near instant clip replay and can take ownership of the media without having to wait for copying from tape and lengthy re-purposing.

The Metus system is the backbone of the suite, fully integrated with Asset Management and open to further integration in the future.”

“The Landing’s media centre is a very exciting project and it’s great to have Metus INGEST at the heart of the operation. The software has been proven worldwide and over time Jon’s team will have the opportunity to integrate the system with playout and archiving solutions.

This process should be just as straightforward as the initial installation and we look forward to working with them to extend the functionality of the product.”